Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Burghead
AdBlue in your diesel tank? Then leave your engine off — and your ignition too. AdBlue is urea dissolved in water. The harm starts once it's sucked through the lines — it won't ignite, and it will not blend with diesel. If your engine has not run yet, AdBlue in a diesel tank is usually emptied and thoroughly rinsed where the car stands in Burghead. First, ring us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in the diesel tank in Burghead
Things to do:
- Pocket the keys, and that prevents someone switching the electrics on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- Which product, and about what quantity? Hang on to the bottle or the till receipt, and we can see.
- Tell us a postcode starting IV30 5, or whichever street lies nearest, and our van reaches you straight — so ring from wherever you stand.
Not to do:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll your car: the motor remains off.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel on top. The AdBlue won't blend, so it's wasted.
- Any driving at all is best avoided, even a short stretch along Park Street.
- By the road, don't attempt emptying it on your own.
The staff working at any Burghead filling station — the the nearest petrol station included — will normally help pushing it aside if you ask. On that drive, the vehicle stays just where it is.
AdBlue in a diesel tank: what it does
Made for your exhaust, AdBlue has no place in your motor. Its own reservoir holds it, and from there it is fed into your exhaust, and there it cleans the fumes. Nothing in a fuel pump is made for this fluid — and none of that was intended to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts very differently from fuel. It does not mix in. Heavier than diesel, it sinks and pools underneath it — the same place the pickup draws from. A vehicle filled on a driveway in Backlands overnight and left unstarted is the simple case. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up so far — but when your motor turns, that's what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
From there it causes two kinds of damage. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, so it keeps labouring on the parts it hits for as long as it remains there. A vehicle left standing around Burghead with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue only in its tank isn't. Water lubricates nothing. The injection pump and each injector need diesel running through them, so the water part damages them in its own right.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it's regularly worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the another forecourt nearby and you have a problem of thin fuel. It mixes with the diesel, and whilst it's in the tank it causes no damage; the harm comes from running the motor on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a completely unsuitable liquid. Since it doesn't burn, running it through isn't an option. Nor can it be watered down, since it splits again — and the next fill won't rinse away deposits or corrosion. So the flush matters for more with AdBlue, and turning your key "to see", in the centre of Burghead or out in Buthill, costs more than nearly any other slip.
The good news is the same as with petrol. Anywhere across Moray your vehicle has come to rest, an unrun motor leaves the AdBlue still in the tank: the easiest bit of a fuel system to clear.
AdBlue in a diesel tank around Burghead: how it ends up there
It's not deliberate. Many cars have the AdBlue cap beside the diesel one, now and then under a single flap, and mixing them up is easy after dark. It mostly happens at home, from a bottle bought en route home, not at the filling station.
It tends to happen in a few familiar ways. Hurrying, outside the local primary school, after a warning light came on during the school run, someone refills the vehicle. Someone pours the container in at home, just off Grant Street, as the day ends. Or a driver unfamiliar with that flap tops up your vehicle after dark, parked in the car park by the pub in the village.
The least familiar cars see it the most — hire cars, new cars, company ones, and the spare car in a home with both fuel types. Anywhere in Moray, Burghead as well, the mistake doesn't change, and nor does the first step: leave it off.
Burghead: started the motor with AdBlue in your diesel tank?
Then your tank is no longer where the AdBlue is. The fuel filter and pipework have had it pulled along, and some running carries it on to the high-pressure pump and every injector.
Maybe coming back from Old Railway Station Park, or part way across Burghead, the engine might run lumpy, smoke, drop power, light up the dash or cut out. Stop when it is safe. Switch off. Leave the vehicle off rather than testing it again. Each start pulls more of it through.
Leave the M90, over 50 miles from Burghead, by the first junction and stop safely, not driving on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Burghead to the car park by Burghead War Memorial is a very different job from a run towards Inverness, under 50 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into your system with every mile. Tell us roughly how far it had come.
Once the motor has been run, the flush covers more, and all of it is done where the vehicle has stopped. Long-term damage is very rare when it is noticed quickly.
Clearing AdBlue in a diesel in Burghead: what it takes
The car remains where it is, whether that is a street beside Benjamin MacLean Memorial Fountain, a driveway, a layby or a forecourt in Burghead, and the van comes to it. Three answers decide the work, so first our technicians ask which fluid was put in, about what quantity, and if the engine has turned over.
Then your tank is emptied where the car waits, and so the polluted fuel and the AdBlue come out together. A full flush counts far more after AdBlue than with petrol, since what remains will not clear out on its own. Fresh diesel goes in after the filter is cleaned — or replaced, if it needs to be — and then the car is tested. If your motor has not run, most jobs take about half an hour once our engineers arrive. The equipment is explosion-proof, and so a busy forecourt is no problem, and it is quiet enough for a residential street after dark.
New diesel goes in to prime the system, and that's the last step. You head off as soon as our engineers have fired it up, and it makes no difference whether the car is on a drive in Burghead or in a space at Elgin. Our engineers make sure it runs smoothly on fresh diesel before leaving. Since the job is done in its entirety where the vehicle is, a workshop never comes into it. The insurer will want an engineer's report and the VAT invoice — both yours once this job is done.
About Burghead, for a moment
Burghead is a small town situated on the Moray coast, with a population of around 1767 people. Burghead has a mix of housing types, but detached homes are predominant, and the town is located near several smaller communities, including St Aethans, Cummingston, and Charlestown. Burghead sits at a low elevation of approximately 10 metres above sea level, looking out over the Moray Firth. Burghead is within commuting distance of Inverness, the nearest city, which is around 31 miles away.
AdBlue drains in Burghead and across Moray
AdBlue jobs around Burghead are passed to vans that cover the places around it — St Aethans, Cummingston plus Charlestown — and most of Moray further out, across IV postcodes. Near a border, or anywhere tricky to pin down? Asking beats guessing, and so phone.
Burghead is a coastal town, and a mobile drain suits it: whether the vehicle is on a home drive, a residential street, a car park or a forecourt, our engineers drain it where it is, so it never needs to be shifted to us.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Burghead
Because the callouts vary, a single price wouldn't be honest. Three things move the cost: whether your engine has been running and for how long, how much AdBlue went in, and where your car is. That last one turns on whether a technician can reach it safely, and an open driveway is easier than a tight gap behind Burghead Parish Church.
Which fluid got in, how much, and if the engine ran: every Burghead enquiry opens with exactly that, before a figure, not after. Those answers shrink a range down to one number.
Priced on the call before the van sets out, it is settled that day — card or phone, no deposit. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we're on the way.
Still beside your car around Burghead?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the car. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Say it's AdBlue, about how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. After that Petrol in Diesel handles it, in Burghead or wherever in Moray.